Best Buy will stop selling Huawei phones and other products from the Chinese manufacturer as U.S. lawmakers and intelligence leaders have raised security concerns about the firm.
The Richfield-based retailer is no longer ordering phones from Huawei and expects to stop selling them in the next few weeks, according to a source familiar with the matter.
The move is the latest setback for Huawei, the world's third-largest smartphone vendor after Apple and Samsung, which has struggled to get a foothold in the U.S. market as politicians and intelligence leaders have raised security concerns about the company and its potential to be used by the Chinese government to aid in spying or hacking. Huawei has denied such assertions, saying that it's employee-owned and has never been asked to spy on another country.
Huawei, whose products are also sold in the U.S. by Amazon and Newegg, does not have a partnership with any of the major carriers. AT&T reportedly had planned to sell Huawei phones but dropped plans to do so earlier this year.
A Best Buy spokesperson declined to comment, saying the company doesn't speak about contracts with vendors.
"We make decisions to change what we sell for a variety of reasons," the company said in a statement.
The move was first reported by the website CNET. Huawei did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
In September, Best Buy also stopped selling security software by Kaspersky, a Russian company, amid outside concerns it may be linked to the Russian government.
Kavita Kumar • 612-673-4113
